WWE is being accused of getting involved in the pizza cutter debacle between Domino’s Pizza and AEW.
As noted, Wednesday’s Fight for the Fallen edition of AEW Dynamite on TNT saw Chris Jericho defeat Nick Gage in a No DQ main event. The match featured a spot where Gage used a pizza cutter on Jericho, right before a picture-in-picture commercial played of a Domino’s commercial, showing a pizza being sliced with a cutter. Domino’s issued a statement to Front Office Sports on Thursday, disavowing the ad. It was also noted that Domino’s may pull all advertising from AEW programming, and that they had no prior knowledge of the pizza cutter promo. You can click here for that report, along with the statement from Domino’s.
WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon was asked about AEW being competition during Thursday’s WWE Q2 earnings call, which you can read about at this link. It was noted in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Vince denied AEW being competition while “behind-the-scenes they were trying to take advantage of the bloodbath the night before,” implying WWE was trying to capitalize off any controversy surrounding the bloody Dynamite main event.
The Observer also noted that “there was a concerted campaign to contact sponsors” of AEW but at press time the only one to react to the match was Domino’s. This did not directly accuse WWE of contacting AEW’s sponsors, but it was implied.
Voices of Wrestling made a tweet on Friday night and noted that WWE had been “calling journalists in hopes the story picks up steam. So far, it hasn’t. Nor has any advertiser (including Dominos) pulled any money off the table as far as we know.”
Furthermore, David Bixenspan of the the Babyface v. Heel website pointed to the original Front Office Sports article, which first revealed the statement from Domino’s, and claimed a reporter from a mainstream publication explicitly said WWE had contacted them about writing an article on the Domino’s – AEW situation. Bixenspan says he was shown a screenshot that backs this up, but as a condition of getting the screenshot, he agreed to keep that reporter’s identity hidden. It was noted that the reporter does not specialize in pro wrestling coverage.
Since the original statement from Domino’s, the Pabst Blue Ribbon beer brand has sided with AEW on social media, which you can read about here
. Also, Gage apologized for offending Domino’s in a tweet on Friday, which you can see here. You can also read Jon Moxley’s words for Domino’s.Stay tuned for updates on this story.
Follow Marc on Twitter at @this_is_marc. Send any news, tips or corrections to us by clicking here.